Why I voted NO

We had a state election on the weekend. Unfortunately, a politician won!

The vote in this election was not just for the two houses of parliament but there was also a referendum on retail trading hours.
There were two questions that basically asked if you felt the community would benefit from increased trading, 1. on weeknights until 9pm and 2. on Sunday afternoons for 5 hours.

I always thought that, given the opportunity to vote for increased retail hours, that I would do. However as I looked into it more I changed my mind.

Both sides of the debate were passionate about why they felt we should vote in their interest, and really it was about their interests. The people who had the most to gain or the most to lose were the most vocal about the issue.

In the end though the arguments of the small business owners won through. Perth is not a large city and there is adequate options for the purchase of many different things at different times other than the standard retail hours. Some of these options, such as weekend markets would be under threat from the large companies like Coles Myer and Woolworths.

There were many different arguments too, but what made me decide to vote against the extra trading hours was simple. About five or so years ago the fuel stations were all deregulated causing all the small independent stations to go to the wall. Now there are only the larger chain service stations left and that I fail to see how decreased competition is going to do anything but increase prices.